Baking for Two

It’s a lot of fun to bake for a big crowd, whether it is goodies for a bake sale, an office party or a family celebration, but most of the time you are probably baking for a much smaller group. Baking recipes aren’t always designed for small batches and not every recipe is easy to scale down to fit a very small pan. You can opt for a mug cake for a quick sweet-tooth fix, but in Baking for Two, you’ll find lots of recipes that are perfect for times when you don’t need a whole layer cake or four dozen cookies.

The book opens with an introduction to downsizing your baking, including a quick overview of tools that will come in handy. For instance, you’ll need to add some smaller bakeware – mini cake pans, pie plates and skillets – to your collection. These mini pans don’t take up much space and aren’t very expensive, so it’s a relatively small investment that will make this type of baking easier. Other kitchen essentials, such as mixing bowls and spatulas, are the same, as are the ingredients that make up these recipes. The recipes themselves cover everything from breakfast to dinner to dessert, with a wide variety of both sweet and savory baked goods. You’ll find plenty of small batch versions of treats you already love, such as blueberry muffins and fudgy brownies, and some new favorites, as well. Anyone who has dabbled in small batch baking will appreciate the fact that the math for scaling down a recipe has been done for you, making the recipes very quick and easy to put together.

The book is great fun to work with and will get you inspired to bake a little bit more often if you’re someone who typically puts it off for special occasions instead of everyday treats. The recipes all sound delicious and use ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. There are plenty of serving suggestions offered with the recipes, as well as notes on how long the shelf life is (not that you’ll have many leftovers with these!) and tips for putting small twists on the treats to customize them. The only flaw here is that there aren’t many photos in the book, which would have made the dishes even more tempting to try.